We need real finance campaign reforms to loosen the grip of special interests on politics.
– Tom Daschle, ex-US Senator
What is political donation? According to Wikipedia, campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates and political parties.
Political parties, charitable organisations, and political action committees are vehicles used for fundraising for political purposes. We can conclude that these sources of funds are legitimately obtained and should be considered above board.
Unfortunately, most, if not all, political funding sources in Malaysia, particularly those involving the parties in power, are known to derive from sleazy deals.
Funds obtained by way of bribery and corruption and used as ‘political donation’ are usually large amounts and easily abused.
We have already witnessed the blatant abuse of political donations being publicly displayed in open court over the past few years.
The corruption and money laundering cases involving former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and his deputy, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should be “eye openers” for us in Malaysia.
First, we have heard the exposes in court of the 1MDB scandal with Najib found guilty of illegally obtaining RM2.6 billion of SRC funds. We also heard how millions from this particular package the defendant insisted were ‘donations’ from Saudi royalty, being given out as political donation to many recipients, including Sarawak BN parties.
It was also public knowledge that some of the funds were ‘innocently’ received by some parties as they had explained because it was expected of the BN chairman (who was Najib during the 2013 general election) to provide campaign funds for BN component parties.
Najib’s appeal is now at the Federal Court stage.
Meanwhile, Zahid is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) for himself as then home minister to extend the firm’s contract as the operator of the One-Stop Centre in China and the foreign visa (VLN) system as well as to maintain the contract agreement for the supply of the VLN integrated system.
On another seven counts, he is accused of obtaining for himself S$1.15 million, RM3 million, 15,000 Swiss francs and US$15,000 from the same company in connection with his official duties.
A significant highlight of the ongoing trial is the secret UKSB ledger kept by the company’s former administrative manager, David Tan.
Tan’s revelation in his testimony was shocking, to say the least, because of the many high profile names being mentioned as recipients of political donation from UKSB.
Tan had named former prime ministers Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, former home minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and former deputy foreign minister Datuk Reezal Merican Naina Merican as among the other recipients who received money directly or through proxies.
Two former MCA ministers, Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy and Datuk Ong Kee Chuan, were among the latest to be named.
So here we are, millions were given to politicians purportedly as political donations. We are now aware how lucrative the VLN contract must be for the UKSB bosses to be so generous to so many politicians.
Not surprisingly, all those named had denied accepting any money from UKSB.
I’m happy to hear from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar that the MACC will summon all individuals named in the controversial UKSB ledger.
He said the probe by the graft buster will determine, based on the records, if the money changing hands was corrupt activity.
We must get to the bottom of this and I hope the minister will see to it that the probe will be fair and transparent and that the result will be made public. The scandal involves millions and the public have the right to know what happened to their money.
At this juncture, I feel that the sad truth of the proposed political funding bill must be revealed. The bill has never reached Parliament up to this day despite years of discussion.
Najib set up the National Consultative Committee on Political Financing when he prime minister and Malaysians were told that plans for a political funding law were underway for years but nothing has materialised.
Obviously, there is a lack of political will to implement this on both sides of the political divide.
Somehow, I get the feeling that those in power are not keen to have a legislation which scrutinises campaign funding.
They used to have it so good with millions flowing freely and understandably, prefer this lax operation with little or no scrutiny to continue.
Much as I dislike stating this, it seems that political donations in Malaysia will continue to be abused for quite a while yet.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
